The Unlikely Thirst of Cassie Lengard
by Waterloo
Summary: A rather serious power-play in Italy, a fairly amusing revolutionary's cussing, a violin with universal connections. You'll love it, I promise, only try it. And if you break a rib laughing and/or crying, no, there is no insurance.
1. Chapter 1

If there indeed was a hell, then Aro of the Volturi was absolutely and entirely certain that it had been compressed into a space of 2 cubic inches, and then stuffed into his throat. He mentally cursed Carlisle. One month previously, he had been sorely challenged by this old friend of his-Carlisle claimed that he had no restraint, that he was uncivilized, and would only be able to prove otherwise if he stayed thirsty, eyes black and temper horrid, for one full month. One full month of burning. Well, Aro had had it. He was furious beyond belief with Carlisle for stating the whole thing. However, it had driven him to go hunting, something that he had not done in several human lifetimes. No indeed, he had sat in a throne, waiting for Heidi to deliver tourists to the Great Room. Being outside sicne the Cullen mishap 2 years previously felt odd beyond belief, like speaking after 2 centuries of silence. Then abruptly, a scent washed over him, and he dropped into a hunting crouch. And stopped. FOr, oddly enough, the scent had just a tinge of the vampire scent, fo icy cod sweetness. It was most certainly a mercy that that scent tainted the human smell, for if it hadn't, the person sitting a few blocks away would have most certainly died within seconds. As it was, the scent was still enough to cause Aro to nearly cry in pain from the sweetness. But the vampire scent kept him on guard.  
>As every vampire, and a few selected and educated humans know(all right, namely Gianna), there are no vampires in Volterra, Italy except for the Volturi. For it is simply not allowed. Rogues cannot just stray into the land of the most powerful, unless they wish to suffer death, by way of ripping and burning. But it was undoubtedly there, the vampire scent, and now Aro stalked toward it, wary. The scent led straight to a huddled lump sitting at the back of an alley.<br>To be fair to the lump in question, it most certainly wasn't ugly, or lumpy itself. But as it had curled into a ball upon the ground, a thin coat, one of many that it wore, hiding it's face as if to block some terrible vision, it truly did look like a ball.  
>The lump seemed to stiffen as Aro approached, not daring to breathe. When he heard it take a tentative breath, he was surprised to see it relax immediately, as if the smell of vampire was not at all what it was hiding from.<br>There was no werewolf smell, simply blood, the smell all around him...  
>He stood there for a minute, waiting for it to stand, to be polite or respectful in any way, to apologize for being in Volterra and beg for forgiveness and mercy. Which, as any non-Volturi-respecting person may know, is usually the correct protocol, and completely normal. Instead, the lump stayed unmoving, unseeable, too huddled under it's coat, not saying anything or moving, except to breathe deeply, seeming to be glad of the Vampire scent.<br>"Excuse me?" he asked politely. Niothing happened. "Excuse e?" he said again, a trifle irritated this time, and crouched down to prod the lump with a nearby stick.  
>"I'm not coming out." said a voice suddenly. "So you can bloody well forget about it. Bloody. Hmm, what a funny word, isn't it?" the voice was probably female, but it was far too cracked to properly tell, as if broken from disuse, or pain.<br>He abruptly decided that he had had enough of this disrespect and yanked the coat off the lump's face.  
>"Didn't I bloody well tell you, sir, that I wasn't coming out? And then you go and disturb me? I mean, really?" On a pile of old jackets and trash bags sat a girl. She was almost certainly a girl, though it was a mite hard to tell, since her dirty blonde hair(or perhaps it was simply blonde that had become dirty) was mussed up and raggedy, her jeans dirty and ripped, her long-sleeved t-shirt and multiple jackets rumpled. But the most astonishing part was not finding a teenaged vampire hobo sitting at the side of the road. The most astonishing part was, almost certainly, the eyes. Because they were pure, absolute, black. The circles under them seemed to have decided to entirely abandon their purple quality, and instead were also black. Her skin was far paler than the average vampire's and all of this led Aro to imagine that a ghost was in front of him, a sad looking, irritated, rogue she-ghost. "As if it wasn't bad enough as it was." she ranted. "As if my throat isn't on nearly literal fire, as if I'm not in enough pain to make any normal person pass out, you have to make it a million times worse. You idiot, can't you see I'm <em>trying<em>not to smell them? The coat was doing perfectly well, as was the not breathing! And then, what do you say to yourself? 'hey, let's just disturb the thirsty vampire, and make her life miserabler than it already is!' That's not jerkheaded at _all_!' "  
>Aro cleared his throat importantly, confused beyond all measure, and fixed a confused gaze on the rumpled girl. "I merely approached." he defended. "Because you happen to be <em>my<em> territory, and because you obviously have not enough respect left to stand when someone approaches."  
>The girl's bleary, tired, black eyes rolled. She looked intensely annoyed. "When you're in as much pain as i am, and as tired, you would find it quite hard to move too. And not to be rude, but who the hell <em>are<em> you?"  
>Aro adopted his most impressive look. "I am Aro of the Volturi."<br>The girls' eyes opened abruptly(she seemed to have been taking a nice little nap while he spoke) at these words. "Well then, you're a leader-person, good and proper. I suppose that I should stand and bow, or salute, but it's really quite impossible, as you probably realize."  
>"Who on earth are you?" Aro asked. "How old are you? What are you doing here, and why do you look so thirsty?"<br>The girl tried to stand up, seeming to feel that it was an occasion ofor standing, and then literally fell down, finding standing to be quite impossible "Eh, never mind, I don't seem to be able to stand." she muttered. "But I am Cassie Lengard. I am 14 years old, human age, but I was changed 2 years ago, so I suppose one could say that I was 16. And yes, I do look quite thirsty, don't I? You see, I'm conducting an experiment, in a way, and I would be quite happy to tell you about it. If you'll help me up. For if I'm to die, I'd prefer to die standing...and plus, I'm really very bored."  
>Driven by his insane curiosity(which throughout the years had led to such things as studying the cuss words of porpoises, losing his eyebrows while conducting experiments, and, several times, waking up in Canada holding an unnaturally large marshmallow, if you really want to know), Aro helped Cassie up, leaning her against the alley wall. "And now can you be so good as to tell me?"<br>Cassie nodded tiredly, and saluted. "Aye aye, captain. And there's your salute. I'd bow, you know, just sarcastically, but I don't think I can. You see, I have not drunken a single thing in 2 years. 'Drank' used in the euphemistic way, of course."  
>Aro froze. Utterly froze. <em>"What?"<em> he finally gasped in disbelief once he had remembered how to speak again.  
>"A tad judgmental, aren't we?" the girl sniffed, her accent shifting back and forth from some sort of English one to a bit of Irish accent, eyes darting round in extreme thirst,. "But it's entirely true, I really haven't. I'm testing my self restraint. And I made a bet with myself. Said I: bet you can't go for 10 years. Said I: bet I can! And so it began, my friend. And so it began."<br>Aro once again had trouble remember how exactly to move his mouth, but when he did, he was exceeding peeved. Well, to be quite honest, it is really not very hard to hake a vampire peeved when they have gone a month without their food source, but even so..."What type of fool are you?" he stood there for around 5 seconds, frowning in consternation and confusion, and still very thirsty himself, thinking about who this girl must be, how she could have possibly gone that long in that much pain, and when he was going to be able to find an actual _human,_ as at the moment, they were being incredibly irritating, either grouping in these small hordes which were un-attackable, or simply not being around at all, because as every idiot knows, human tourists rarely spend much time outside when it's cold.  
>"It was horrible, indeed." the girl conceded. "And luckily, there aren't any humans around, sorry. I've kinda been giving off a stay-away-from-me-or-you-die vibe, but-you know, you should really get some self control. Like, at Target. They sell it next to the fish food. Hey!" she brightened, a sudden idea coming to her."Do you think I 'll die if I keep this up?"<br>"No! You're immortal! It's physically impossible! And-you read my mind. Didn't you?" As incredibly ill tempered as he was, Aro was already beginning to assess this odd girl as a member of the Volturi-because, of course, this is Aro we're talking about, the bipolar one with the irrational power-hungry personality.  
>"Indeed I did."<br>"Why wouldn't you mention this?"  
>"Because I'm tired, and cold, and I didn't even know a vampire could <em>get<em> cold. I'm also bored, in pain, too curious for my own good, and rather filthy. I had no reason to mention it. Furthermore, my limbs ache and burn, I literally cannot move, my throat is on fire, all I've been able to think of for the last 18 months is human blood. I'm utterly miserable, and I've found that to others, I smell like a human_,_ which is incredibly weird. Are we done here?"  
>"No!" Aro shouted. "I mean, sorry, no."<br>"That's it. I'm done here. I'm going to sleep." And the girl fell down onto the ground and instantly fell asleep. Aware that he was rapidly destroying his reputation for patience and gentility by the second, Aro knelt down and shook the girl.  
>"We're not done here! Awake! up! You-" He then helped the girl up, while she muttered about disrespect and downright rudeness.<br>She then fell down, and took entirely too much amusement out of it, giggling hysterically at her own clumsiness, and confirming his belief that thirst had quite the ability to drive one mad.  
>"That truly does it." Aro sighed, and simply scooped her up and carried her, finding her to be almost freakishly light. Cassie looked a mite confused.<br>"Ah, very well. Look, it's a butterfly!" she pointed, and Aro saw a pure white butterfly fly past. Then Cassie took the initiative to once again fall asleep.

It was going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

Aro knew that there were many things that could be confusing in the world, and yet he had conquered most of them. He had solved complex calculus problems, had studied what it takes to create a volcano. In fact, he pretty much believed he had done everything, earned everything, knew everything. And then something like this just popped up, and he was proven wrong. And so now he walked along the cobbled streets of volterra in the middle of the night, carrying a sleeping vampire who could apparently also cry, read minds, drunken anything in 2 years, was in extreme pain, and had called him captain.

He couldn't help thinking that this was some sort of karma getting back at him.

The girl could be a rogue. Just a regular rogue, lying about everything. No, not really. She was most certainly telling the truth, her sleeping proved that. She seemed to have the abiliy to be polite, even if it had not been exercised. No, perhaps that was a mite incorrect-her ability to be polite had been ripped into pieces, burned, and the ashes eaten by a werewolf. She could be from the Cullens, that was their motto, wasn't it, self-restraint? But no, not really. Carlisle, being very nice and Carlisle-like, probably would not allow the girl named Cassie to embark of a path of self-destruction that cost so much pain. It was all entirely impossible. There was only one explanation: Cassie was insane. Entirely and absolutely insane. The bloodlust had simply fried her mind, and...that really explained nothing at all, unless he were to assume that his brain was quite gone, too. Finding the grate automatically, he leapt down, still lost in the utter random. When he walked into Gianna's office carrying her, Gianna started in surprise. "What the freaking-" she said, and then composed herself. "I mean, hello, Master Aro. Can I ask..."

Aro simply sighed. "I have no idea. She kindly informed me that she can read minds and that she has not drunken a thing in 2 years. Then she went to sleep."  
>Gianna looked as if she were biting her lip to keep from saying anything. Finally, she burst into laughter. "I'm-I'm so sorry, master-" she managed through her gasps of mirth-"it's just so funny, and-"<br>Now in a decidedly bad mood, Aro swept out of the lobby into the throne room, and was met with much the same reception there.  
>Caius raised a white eyebrow presumptuously and cocked his head in a what-have-we-here manner. Of course, he had to voice it, too. "What have we here?" Because he's really not the most subtle person.<br>"I have no idea." Aro muttered furiously. "Alec! I need a ridiculously high number of blood bags!"  
>Everyone simply looked utterly confused. That's when Gianna walked in. "He met a random girl who is a mind-reader, and hasn't drunken a thing in 2 years. Who went to sleep."<br>Caius sighed, and Marcus kept his bored expression. "Aro. Aro, aro, aro. Aro." Caius said slowly in a very 'shame, shame' way. "Aro." Of course. Just when he'd thought he was done with the sad name-saying. "My brother, you have lost your sanity."  
>"No, I really haven't!" Aro snapped, thoroughly annoyed with the lot of them. "And you'll see when she wakes up! Now go, Alec."<br>As he walked up the stairs to Gianna's room, Cassie decided it was a good time to wake up. "Hey, you exist!" she exclaimed when she saw him. "Am I being carried?"  
>Aro nodded. "Indeed."<br>"Where are we, Captain?"  
>Aro ignored the captain part and decided to simply answer the question. "We are in the bell tower. Also, you owe me quite a few answers."<br>"I suppose I do." she said quietly, face oddly dropping for a moment, eyes darkening even more...before she abruptly straightened and put on a smile again. "I have questions, too. What happened to that butterfly? DO you think it's all right?"  
>Aro started. "Er...not to be offensive, but why do you ask?"<br>She frowned. "Well, it's be sad for the butterfly to die, wouldn't it? Hey, this place is beautiful! Who built this?"  
>"We hired an architect a very long time ago."<br>"Is there an actual bell in the so-called bell tower, or do they just say that, like Big Lake is a place with no lake?"  
>Aro smiled against his will. "Yes, at the very top."<br>"So, captain, what now? Are you going to kill me?" she asked casually. "Am I some kind of issue?"  
>"Rather calm about it, aren't you?" Aro snapped. "And no. Why am I 'captain' ?"<br>Cassie shrugged, which looked very odd from Aro's angle of above. "I can say sir instead. I feel like I should be respectful in some way, and I'm not a half-witted moron who'd say…the m-word."

"The m-word?"

"Yes."

"Muskrat?"

"No."

"Malevolent."

Cassie shook her head.

"Mufasa."

"Isn't he in the lion king?"

"Why does everyone associate a perfectly good African name with a children's movie?" Aro wondered aloud. "Why can't they just let it be a name?"

"The one that ends with R."  
>"Why captain, but not master?" Aro asked curiously still ascending the steps.<br>"God's my master."  
>"That's incredibly random. Do you say these things particularly to annoy me?"<br>"Completely. I do it a lot. It's fun to see how people react to them. Are we near the bell?"  
>Aro then managed to somehow open Gianna's door while holding a person(which, as any person-carrying person will tell you, takes great skill and zen power), and set Cassie down upon the couch.<br>"I will make you a deal." he announced. "You are going to drink several bags of blood and answer my questions. In return, I will answer any questions."  
>"Will you let me see the bell tower?"<br>"Yes."  
>The girl seemed to consider it for a moment. "Well, I suppose that I'll lose the bet with myself, but I agree."<br>"That's good. how exactly do you feel? I'm quite curious."  
>"Not good." she yawned. "I'm really sleepy. and I've been sleeping almost nonstop for the past 6 months. Every bit of my body feels like the hot and cold chills, and I'm really truly freezing. My throat is beyond agony, my head is throbbing. Even other people's thoughts are unclear, and I think my vision is blurry... but maybe the blurriness is making it look blurry. Hey! If the blurriness is making i look blurry, is it really blurry? Since the blurriness is making it? But if the blurriness is just making it, then it can't be, can it? I wish I could take a shower. Can I take a shower?"<br>"Later. No doubt Athendora will be happy to let you use her restroom-she'd be in physical pain to see you right now."  
>Cassie yawned. "That's nice. I love showers. It really is beautiful in here, isn't it? Can you remember who your architect was?"<br>"Van gogh."  
>"I thought he was an artist!"<br>"And now you know that you were wrong." Alec promptly entered at that moment, hands full of what was indeed an almost obscenely high number of blood bags(if you, as Bella Swan used to, have a natural aversion to the smell or sight of blood, you really shouldn't' be reading this story. As Aro would remind Carlisle, "Vampires drink_human blood._That's why we're _vampires_." However, if you would like to take carlisle's side in this matter, as you probably should, if you are a human, there is nothing wrong with that). He dropped them on the couch.  
>"master, can i ask...?"<br>"Ask Gianna." Aro told him. "Or Caius, I have an inkling that he's taking a great deal of sadistic joy from this entire situation." Alec took the hint from his black-eyed and bad-tempered master and left, no doubt going to interrogate the befuddled Gianna...and just possibly to hunt himself.  
>Aro handed a blood bag to Cassie. "Drink. No talking. I'm far too curious to be patient."<br>"But-"  
>"None of that."<br>"Bu-"  
>"Not of that, either."<br>Cassie seemed oddly detached from the bloodlust that she should be feeling, but she opened the bag and gulped it in a split second. She the stopped. "Oh. Ew. Ick.. Bleah. That's revolting."  
>"It's the anti-coagalant, and as you can see, it's not fresh." Aro informed her. "You don't have that luxury right now, as you cannot stand, which is entirely your own fault."<br>Cassie took the point from the angry vampire before her, and proceeded to finish every bag of the blood that tasted nothing like blood, making comments on it's disgustingness every few seconds.  
>When she was finished, Aro nodded. "Now let's see if you can stand."<br>The girl slowly rose with one shaky movement, and felt compelled to look down at her feet once she was standing, to make sure she really was. "What a funny feeling." she laughed. "Everything's so beautiful! I can really see right now, and it's all so clear!" she smiled slowly, gazing off into the distance. "Wait-hey!, that's not a color I saw before. What's that called?"  
>"We've never given it a name." Aro said. In truth, he had mostly forgotten that it was different from any other color. "Sit."<br>She obliged, sitting right on the floor instead of the couch, so Aro sat upon the couch, and reviewed his ridiculously long mental list of questions.  
>"What do you remember about being a human?"<br>Cassie looked mournful. "Not a whole lot. I remember some bad junk. But I also remember butterflies!" she added happily. "They're the only other things I remember!"  
>Butterflies...could there be a connection there? Something to do with her previous life, maybe? And..."Do you remember anything about the pain? Anything at all? Doyou know who changed you?" he asked quietly.<br>"No idea. But you know, I woke up here."  
>Aro started. "Excuse me?"<br>"I woke up right by a sewer grate, right here in Volterra. And I smelled you guys, and I watched for a while, and listened to everyone's thoughts. DO you know how hard that is when Felix comes out like, every 2 minutes, and is all, 'Oh, I smell a suspicious smell. Now I must go rummaging through everything.' Annoying, that's what it is. I like Jane, don't you?"  
>This was officially the strangest thing he's ever heard a stranger say. "You...like Jane?"<br>Cassie nodded. "yeah. Did you know, she paints? I bet you didn't know. She doesn't like to tell anyone. But she's amazing at it. So whenever she does it, she thinks about other random things, because she knows you'll read her thoughts later. Does Caius scare you? He scares me. But he's still pretty funny." she said. "But I really love Gianna. She's so brave. She's terrified of being here every day. but she stays, because she wants a purpose in life."  
>Aro nodded slowly, just trying to process all of this, then realized that he had forgotten something vitally important.<br>"How ridiculous this is." he muttered to himself. "Cassie, if I can have your hand, then we'll have an end to this question answering." He wondered why he hadn't thought of this before. It was downright bizarre.  
>Cassie took two of her 5 gloves off, and held out her hand, which Aro took. Immediately, his eyes snapped shut from the mass amounts of information.<br>A girl who may have been cassie, sitting on a stool in the middle of a shop and-the thought abruptly closed. Gone. What? It skipped straight to the concrete facts-waking up as a vampire, the sudden flash of realization, the horrible burning-the resolution to not drink-but why, somehow, he could not see. He waited for the onslaught of thoughts, but nothing came. But he could most certainly feel something there.

So we'll re-word here. It was more' his eyes snapped shut from the mass amounts of information that he thought he would get, but then he really didn't get said information, and he was a failure as a mind-reader, and blabbety-blah, insulting words, blah-blah'.

_A tad dramatic, don't you think?_ the most recent, clear thought filtered through. _Couldn't help it, though. Your face was funny just now.__  
><em>**...Cassie?**  
><em>of course, Captain. You forget, I can read thoughts, too.<br>_He finally snapped his eyes open. "most of your thoughts are blocked...may I ask how?"  
>Cassie shrugged, tracing patterns in the carpet. "Because I want them to be. Because I don't want anyone to see them." she announced, perfectly calm, as if it was entirely normal to control this.<br>Aro frowned. "If you do not let me see them, it will be a threat to security."

Gosh, I, the recorder of this, must remark. Who the hell does he think he is, the CIA? Sorry. Go on.  
>Cassie shook her head. "No it won't. Because I'm not going to hurt anyone. You know I wouldn't hurt anybody. Hurting is revolting." Another of the images washed over Cassie, bright, vibrant colors, unbearable pain...but before Aro could see it properly, Cassie was shuddering, teeth gritted, fighting against seeing the memory.<br>I have no proof of that. You must let me see your thoughts. It could be a threat to security if you do not."  
>Cassie shook her head. "My thoughts are private. That's my rule. The impeccable self control vanished for only a split section of a second, and Cassie was almost a child, a scared, pained child-and then it was gone, and she had fixed a smile upon her face again-"You can't imagine how much having private thoughts means to me. And now, you can just spit out that question that you're dying to ask-I can see it in your thoughts."<br>Exceedingly irritated that his mind could be read, but not hers, he grimaced. "I was going to ask the customary question-if you will join the Volturi. And would you do me the kindness of not reading my thoughts?''  
>Cassie shrugged. "Sure, if you say so The thoughts part, I mean." her expression suddenly turned fierce. "But don't think I haven't heard the rumors about you not allowing people to leave. If I want to leave, I will either leave, or be killed. But I will not stay."<p>

Oh, dear lord. Had Eleazar published a bloody _autobiography?  
><em>That couldn't be true...Chelsea had only once failed, and that had been before one whose talent was shielding, not someone who had simply trained themselves into it. "Done." he said.  
>"Shake on it." Casisie said. "That way, you're telling the truth."<br>Truly amused by this, Aro smiled. "I could be lying and still shake."  
>Cassie nodded. "That's very true. But you won't, in this particular circumstance. Not that you wouldn't in others. So what happens now?"<br>Aro sighed. "Now I will take you to see Athendora, and then perhaps things will start making more sense. Because you look like a nomad." A nomad splattered with mud, then tarred and feathered, and finally dragged through a cowpie.  
>Cassie's now -rimson eyes sparkled as they walked down the hall, her stopping every few seconds to ask questions. "Is it spelled A-R-O, or A-E-R-O, like Aeropostale, or A-R-R-O-W? Do you have a brother or sister named Bow? And do they ever throw you? Because that would be really fitting. And if it's A-E-R-O, does it make you feel like, ultra awkward, to see pre-pubescent girls wearing AEROPOSTALE shirts?"<br>"...no. And it's A-R-O."  
>"That's nice. Are you and Marcus and Caius really brothers?"<br>"They are. I'm not."  
>"What really happened when you guys confronted the Cullens?"<br>Aro stopped dead, shocked into silence. "How did you-what?"  
>"I heard about it from some dude called Garrett, but he seemed rather biased, if you ask me. The way I hear it from him, "they wished to crush our freedom." she imitated a deep and booming voice. "Because there was this little person called reneesmee, and she was Bella and Edward's child, and <em>how is that even possible<em>? But anyway, he said that then you were like, "Join us!" And Bella and Edward and Zafrina and the shapeshifters and Benjamin and a whole slaw of other people are all, "Nevahhh!" Real dramatic, huh?. And Garrett said, "Should I call you master?" And he's really proud about saying that, you know, he thinks he's a real rebel. I think he's gonna spike his hair, or start a punk band or something. And you were all, "Well, yeah." And it's like, "ooh, burn, ttsssss." After that, the whole description of the event just deteriorated into cursing in Irish. i thought it best to end the subject."  
>"I will explain at another time." said Aro once he had heard the lot. It explained her partial Irish accent...if she had woken with little knowledge of everything, her first instinct would be to acquire some sort of persona, starting with anything like a tone of voice...hence the accent.<br>Cassie smiled. "Cool, it sounds really interesting. This place is so beautiful, I just can't get that out of my head! How do you exist in such a nice place and just go about business as usual?"  
>"After a time, it simply seems like any other place." Aro explained. "I am curious-are there any moral reasons that you were abstaining from blood?"<br>Cassie frowned. "Hmm. I don't know. I don't think so. But maybe-I can't tell, since I've never actually hunted."  
>"And you were a newborn..." Aro muttered. "And yet never hunted. You will have to some time in the future."<br>Cassie nodded. "Yes, I suppose so. I think I shall adopt the Edward method."

"You know, killing only criminals. There are 4 known methods. The Edward method, which he ditched later because he's like, "Oh, that's too judgemental." But that's really stupid, don't you think? because there're plenty of other times when humans choose to put people in jail and give lethal injections and stuff, so why is it okay for some to judge and others not to? Then there's the Carlisle method, which is surviving on Animal blood, for moral reasons. The nomad method is killing and drinking the blood of anyone who comes your way-very uncivilized. The Volturi method is selective drinking. That's a euphemism, by the way."  
>Aro pondered this for a moment. "And the Cassie method." he added. "Not drinking anything, therefore proving one's idiocy."<br>"How wonderful! I get my own method!" she said happily. "it almost makes it all worthwhile. That and the fact that now I know it's possible, and I won one fifth of the bet with myself."  
>"When exactly did you think about these methods?" Aro asked, genuinely curious. He had started by only making polite conversation, but Cassie was simply fascinating to talk with. Excuse the use of the 'f' word-but don't worry, we'll be downing him for using it later.<br>"I had a while to think after i was changed-I used to work out algebra problems and write essays in my head. And poetry. They're some of the things that are blocked in my mind. It all made a really good distraction. And of course, I listened to a lot of thoughts. It was nice, until the burning really started." Cassie explained. "After Athendora murders me for looking as a hobo would, can I go see the bell tower?"  
>"Possibly." he agreed, and they turned the corner into the thrown room, where 2 grumpy leaders, plus the woman who was presumably Athendora sat, all looking very confused.<br>Caius pounded an arm of his throne-chair. "Out with it! We've all been sitting and waiting for long enough!"

Well, that was really none of his concern. They could have stood, if they'd wanted to. Possibly even skipped. No one said you had to _sit _while waiting.  
>"Why, brother, I have no idea what you mean." Aro said, looking fakely confused by the random subject. Cassie snickered, a smile lighting her face, before immediately forcing it out, straightening military-style, and assuming an extremely dire and official expression, like perhaps that one you would wear at a hanging.<br>Caius sighed. "I tire of the word games. Who is this girl, what on earth is going on, etcetera."  
>Before Aro could say a word, Cassie had cleared her throat importantly. "I am Cassie Lengard, aged 16 years total, but changed 2 years ago."<br>Caius looked up with weary eyes. "Tell me why I should actually care, Aro."  
>"You should actually care," explained the fascinated one, "because Cassie can read minds. She can also apparently sleep, though that may simply be side effects of going without blood for 2 years. It is altogether-"<br>"Don't say fascinating, don't say fascinating." cassie muttered under her breath.  
>"-Fascinating." Aro finished.<br>"Oh, _merda_, you said fascinating." Cassie groaned. "You say that about everything, judging by your thoughts."  
>"I like her." Caius decided.<br>"It's not my fault." Aro defended. "I had to say it. It's fascinating."  
>"And there it is <em>again."<em> Cassie whined.  
>"Anyhow, now we need only a ruling of rather to kill her," Aro explained, "or allow her to join us."<br>Cassie raised a hand. "By the way, may it be said that he shook on it. And for the record, you're not going to be able to kill me. If I'm dying, I will die in a much more dignified way." she informed them. "Possibly something involving explosions, and squirrels."  
>"It's only a technicality."Aro told her. "Only a matter of formality, like Robert's Rules of Order."<br>Cassie sniffed. "Well, if you lied, I'll rip you into pieces, burn you, bring you back to life, and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. you know, like the labels on shampoo bottles."  
>Caius snickered. " I would vote for the girl to join us, if indeed her powers are as you said. And if they're not...she's annoying you. Thereby, yes."<p>

"Ridiculous! She's not annoying me!"

"Would it be annoying if I insisted that I annoyed you?" Cassie asked, examining her fingernails.

"You-I was simply annoyed because of your stupid ideas-"

"Aha! The un-annoyable one has been annoyed! Yes. She's staying." Caius said again.

Now, pause. Yes, this is odd. Bizzarre, but you must realize that as much as a certain white-haired vampire feels, jokes are perfectly fine. Well, as long as they're at the expense of others. He's really not a bad-tempered bloke, as long as the jokes can make someone sad.  
>Marcus nodded slowly, not saying anything, because this is Marcus we're talking about, and he just goes with the flow.(But he never wears tie-dye. Ever. ooh, did I just put that mental image in your head? Sorry.)<br>Aro smiled. "you know my vote. It appears that Cassie stays."  
>"Now can I go somehow take a shower?" she asked, completely unconcerned by the livingdying choice that they had just made.  
>Heidi, who was standing at the corner of the room, watching the whole exchange, nodded vigorously. "Master, if I may...?" She looked to Aro for permission, which caused Cassie to snort in derision, both at the m-word, and the request, that someone actually had to ask. Aro nodded, and Heidi pulled Cassie out of the room by a rumpled glove. In truth, Cassie had taken quite a bit of precautions to heat loss, having 2 gloves on one hand and 3 on another, along with her rumpled ski hat, the t-shirt with a jacket and coat on top, and unusually raggedy and old jeans.<p>

After approximately 1 minute, back came Cassie."Glove, please." she said to Aro.

Instead, he handed it to Heidi. "Make sure it's burned. Please."

And then they were walking out.

"I have a lot of work to do here. you should be ready to rinse, and repeat, and repeat." Heidi informed the bedraggled girl as they walked down the hall. "And repeat."  
>Cassie smiled. "You're kinda image-obsessed, aren't you? Tell me, for I simply can't get past it-why does anyone call anyone master?"<br>Heidi frowned down at the considerably younger girl as they walked through a hall. "Out of respect, of course."  
>Cassie pursed her lips, which gave her a very British-like expression. "Ick. Blah. Ew. I can't picture ever calling anyone that, cause if i did, I just might puke. Which is physically impossible."<br>"And yet you hate Garrett..."  
>"Oh no, not at all. i don't hate Garrett. I don't hate anyone. Condemning someone to hate is a terrible thing, you know."<br>Heidi really had no idea how to respond to a lesson on morality from someone who looked like a hobo, and so she simply guided the girl down the hall, wondering if she owned enough soap.

Somehow, Aro was a million times more restless than he had been before he set out. He had been out hunting, and had this time not come across any mind-reading people, but something was certainly and absolutely bugging him. If only he could put his finger on it...  
>"Stop pacing." Caius growled. "You're going to wear down the floors, I swear."<br>"There's something missing..." muttered Aro, pulling abstractly an his cloak's sleeve as he walked faster and faster on the stones of the floor.  
>"I applaud you for your entire lack of sense." Caius retorted. "And now, could we move on to an actual subject? You should be thrilled-you're you, after all-about the Cassie situation."<br>Aro smiled."Of course I'm thrilled! I'm overjoyed! I'm mentally jumping up and down! But something is really disturbing me, it's just on the tip of my tongue..."  
>Marcus very pointedly averted his eys, which really had the exact opposite effect. "What?" Aro demanded to know.<p>

Now, the reader may realize that this is a big moment. This is the second time in this entire ridiculous Marcus-excluding series that Marcus actually speaks. In this case. he says even less than the previous 9 words in Breaking Dawn, which is really very impressive.

"Nothing at all, Brother."

Aro strode up to Marcus, reaching out to touch his hand. Marcus simply stood, ducking away. "What-why aren't you...?"

Marcus shrugged. "I'm sorry, Brother. I don't think you should see this."

Oh! More words! Yeah!

"But-see here, now! That's not how this works! You saw something, didn't you? Tell me!"

At that moment, Cassie bounced in, followed by Heidi. "I repeated, and repeated, and repeated, just like that stupid label said." cassie informed Heidi. "now leave me alone."  
>"If you'd just let me curl your hair-"<br>Cassie gave a death glare, causing Heidi to snort. "What the bloody hell would that do to help anything?"  
>"You're really beautiful, moron, and if you would just curl your damn hair-"<br>Cassie ignored this entirely, spotting the three leaders. "Hello! So what's happening now? Do I have an assignment? A mission? What do I do? Am i a ninja?"  
>Aro turned toward the sound of the voice, and immediately spotted one person who looked like Heidi and one person who barely looked like Cassie. The girl did not look like Cassie because 1)her smell was even better, or rather, worse, depending upon how one looked at it, 2) she was un-muddied, and 3)the blood seemed to have set in, giving her now only slight purple circles, a rather un-vampire-like glow, and bright crimson eyes. She was, of course, smiling for all she was worth.<p>

There was something else, too-the same thing that had been on the tip of his tongue before-somehow, Cassie was really ridiculously, absurdly beautiful-the perfect profile, bright, large, sparkling eyes that were framed by black lashes, hair tumbling messily and perfectly, still happy, of course-

"You'll have to get her some sort of disgusting perfume, Heidi, until we figure out why she smells human." he commented in his leaderly manner, which we shall hereby refer to as such, simply to annoy him.

Cassie rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her new, and clean black shirt, which sat atop of a pair of clean jeans and what looked suspiciously like combat boots(and if Felix asks you, Heidi TOTALLY didn't steal a pair of his, because cassie TOTALLY didn't refuse to wear dress shoes, and totally didn't coerce Heidi into sneaking into his room, taking them, and spritzing all of his shirts with lavender. Oh, and then Felix totally didn't swear vengeance). "Well, that's nice. But though I'm bite-able, at least I'm not smackable. So ha. Therefore, I rock."  
>Instantly curious(and irrationally thirsty), Aro raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"<br>"Heidi weirded out, and bit me." she explained, not perturbed in the slightest. "So now I know I'm bitable, but not hurtable any other way. And still fast and stuff, cause that's a duh."  
>Wishing that he had Carlisle in the Volturi right now to work out this conundrum, aro pretended that it was completely normal. "Ah. Well, then.' He put himself back in the non-confused-leader-mode. "Since we have...no idea of al you can do, you can start off with a watch every night. Felix has the mornings."<br>Smiling brightly, Cassie mockingly bowed and saluted. "You got it, Captain. I'll go watch outside." And she happily skipped off.  
>"Wait!" Aro shouted. "Come back! you have to come back, so we'll know you're not just leaving! This is important!"<br>An hour later, Felix had finally tracked the teenager down, gotten her to touch his hand(she reluctantly poked him) to prove that it was not part of a diabolical plan to run off, or go talk to the Romanians, or something else that was bad. In return for his efforts, he had received a mental image of a large purple dinosaur skipping around. After organizing Jane's shift with her, telling Felix to keep an eye on Cassie just in case she employed a Garrett-like-getaway scheme, and sending Heidi on a tourist scouting trip, not to mention shushing Caius every time he tried to figure out how to annoy him as adeptly as Cassie, he had finally found a large historical book an sat down to read it in a garden outside, with only a few hours before dawn.  
>"When I was 1 I had some fun, way down under the sea." a voice softly sang, perhaps a mile away, and Aro instantly looked up at the nursery rhyme. Where was it—ah, yes. It had been in Edward's memories, of something they'd been singing with Reneesmee.<br>"I climbed aboard a pirate ship, and the captain said to me," it came again, and Aro tried to go back to his book. I'm sure this will surprise you, but that didn't happen.  
>"Going over, going under. Stand at attention like a soldier-with a one, two, three." At last he recognized the voice as Cassie's, whisper-singing a mile away while taking her watch over the pallazzo dei priori. Shaking his head at the sheer randomness, Aro went back to his book, smiling just a bit.<br>After a little while, another sound came, this time 2 voices. "Tic tac toe, give me an x, give me an o, give me a three in a row-"  
>"row sham bo!" the other voice said. At this point simply confused, Aro gave up his criticizing of Roosevelt's political strategy and walked back to the Tower, really unsure of what else to do. Once there, he could see jane and Cassie, perched at the very top of the foremost Arch, playing a sort of hand game. "How do you that?" Jane asked, sounding as confused as he felt.<br>Cassie laughed softly. "Your problem is that you're thinking of it too much. It's luck-you can't get inside my head, my head is too odd."  
>"I think you're just reading y thoughts." Jane accused.<br>cassie looked hurt. "I promised, didn't I?"  
>Jane sighed and nodded, "Yes. Let us try it again."<br>"Tic tac toe, give me an x, give me an o, give me a three in a row, ro sham bo!" they both cried at the same time.  
>"How is that even possible?" Jane exploded. "It's just luck." Cassie explained. "Some days you have luck, some days I have luck. It's a random type of thing." She offered an apologetic smile to Jane, who accepted it and smiled in turn. Jane. Jane actually smiled. Not in a deadly way. Not threateningly. Jane just...smiled.<p>

This was so. Bloody. Creepy.  
>And weeks later, as everything was going smoothly, it was becoming still more apparent. Because of course she had to love Cassie...everyone loved Cassie. She had taught jane how to play children's games, shown archery to Alec, made Caius actually laugh with her sardonic personality(nothing good can be said here with her interactions with Marcus, but that's just because Marcus doesn't talk, like, ever), continually complimented Heidi on her looks, explained paintball to Dmitri and Felix, laughed and joked around with Chelsea and Renata...it was really getting to the point of freakishness, what a very happy person she was. 7 hours on watch, and she came back, all smiles, describing how nice the birds were to Demitri, who would have backhanded anyone else had they dared to say anything about birds. Aro was becoming more and more sure that there was something incredibly wrong with the girl named Cassie.<p>

"Master!"

Cassie wrinkled her nose at the word, which was coming from Gianna, who had come running into the thrown room, where everyone was congregated.

Gah. Try saying that all in one breath.

It's a really odd thing, how vampires kinda just congregate all into the same room from time to time, especially if you look at a big group of them, like the volturi. I mean, on any given day, usually, Felix and Dmitri will be practicing fighting, Jane will be painting and thinking very loudly about other things(_tomatoes, tomatoes are fuzzy, I'm not painting, I'm TOTALLY not painting, so don't even think I'm painting, because I'm not_), Heidi will be tourist-ing, and the ancients will be just sitting there, being awesome. Honestly, you'd think they'd bet bored, but evidently, their awesomeness does not allow that.  
>Of course, since a few weeks previously, it had really been more, 'on any given day, Felix and Dmitri will be practicing fighting, with Cassie, who always annoys them by never actually fighting, just slipping out of their way and letting them essentially beat each other up, while she remains unscathed, complimenting Jane's paintings, turning a deaf ear to any tourist-ing, and...the point is, everyone simply liked Cassie far too much, and it was rather creepy. Anyway, we are getting so off topic here...what I was saying, before i was so rudely interrupted by myself, was that strangely, at random times during the day, great large groups of vampires seem to just congregate in areas.<br>"You have some visitors."

"Who exactly are you speaking of?" Caius snapped. "Speak quickly, human."

Aro saw Cassie tense from across the room, angry at someone being chastised. "Well, sir, the Cullens-"

"What?" Casus exploded, causing Gianna to the safety of her desk, where she could do something less dangerous, like argue with the IRS over property taxes on her condo, or juggle flaming knives. "Now? Them again? Why we didn't attack, Aro, I still don't-"

"Peace, my friend." Aro said, holding up both palms. "Carlisle is a valuable friend and ally, and we still do not wish to offend them. And, if you remember, we had an open invitation for them." As the reader may know, the Open Invitation was really more of a 'if you don't get your pale arses over to see us, then we will know something is afoot, and therefore come after you' invite.

Cassie held a hand up form across the room where she was speaking with Heidi. "What?" Caius snarled. Aro, who by this point as beginning to comprehend that Cassie's ideas, though strange and disturbing, were usually very effective, held up a hand to calm Caius. "Yes?"

"Let me go see them. I'll go find out whatever they're here for, be polite, respectful, the whole nine yards."

"Why are there nine yards?" Caius muttered angrily...you know what? When he mutters, it's angry, okay? So you just assume that from now on, got it? "Why not 7? Or 14?"


End file.
